{"id":307181,"date":"2026-06-14T16:05:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-14T16:05:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/307181\/"},"modified":"2026-06-14T16:05:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-14T16:05:08","slug":"not-a-florida-value-sen-rick-scott-pushes-to-block-public-funds-for-kanye-wests-tampa-show","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/307181\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Not A Florida Value&#8217;: Sen. Rick Scott Pushes To Block Public Funds For Kanye West&#8217;s Tampa Show"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>TAMPA, Fla. \u2013 U.S. Senator Rick Scott is gathering state leaders and members of the Jewish community for a press conference on Monday morning in St. Petersburg to push back against Kanye West\u2019s upcoming concerts in Tampa.<\/p>\n<p>Scott is demanding that no public money be used to support the artist\u2019s performances, which are scheduled for June 26 through June 29 at Raymond James Stadium.<\/p>\n<p>Ahead of Monday\u2019s 10 a.m. event at The Florida Holocaust Museum, Scott sent a letter to the Tampa Sports Authority Board of Directors. In the letter, he urged the board to reconsider hosting the shows because the stadium is a taxpayer-supported venue.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Raymond James Stadium is a publicly owned venue made to be safe and serve the interests of the Hillsborough County and Tampa residents,\u201d Scott wrote. He argued that the artist\u2019s history of antisemitic comments makes the publicly funded stadium an inappropriate fit for the concerts.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Florida-Senator-Rick-Scott.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"632\" height=\"351\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Florida-Senator-Rick-Scott.jpeg\" alt=\"Florida Sen. Rick Scott\" class=\"wp-image-291796\"  \/><\/a>Florida Sen. Rick Scott (60 Minutes)<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat we spend public money on reflects our values, and using dollars from hardworking families to platform a hateful person pushing evil ideologies is not a Florida value,\u201d Scott stated in the letter.<\/p>\n<p>He also pointed out that West was recently barred from performing in the United Kingdom over his rhetoric, noting that the artist\u2019s outbursts have helped mainstream antisemitism.<\/p>\n<p>The Monday press conference will include several prominent figures alongside Scott, including Ashley Moody, Department of Justice Task Force to Combat Antisemitism Chair Leo Terrell, and Holocaust survivor Toni Rinde. Representatives from the State of Israel and The Florida Holocaust Museum are also slated to attend and speak.<\/p>\n<p>Scott closed his letter by stating his team is ready to help the Tampa Sports Authority address the issue, adding that he expects the authority to take action to ensure tax dollars do not subsidize the event.<\/p>\n<p>READ: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tampafp.com\/give-me-a-break-florida-judge-frees-detained-immigrant-after-government-ignores-court-order\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">\u201cGive Me A Break\u201d: Florida Judge Frees Detained Immigrant After Government Ignores Court Order<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Please make a small\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.paypal.com\/donate\/?hosted_button_id=KWYEB8X3JQ2MY\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">donation to the Tampa Free Press to help sustain independent journalism<\/a>. Your contribution enables us to continue delivering high-quality, local, and national news coverage.<\/p>\n<p>Sign up:\u00a0Subscribe to our free\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/tampafp.com\/newsletter\/\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">newsletter<\/a>\u00a0for a curated selection of top stories delivered straight to your inbox<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA, Fla. \u2013 U.S. Senator Rick Scott is gathering state leaders and members of the Jewish community for&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":307182,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":["post-307181","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307181","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=307181"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307181\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/307182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=307181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=307181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=307181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}